What documents are required for registration under the Registration Act, 1908

Registration of a Document—Meaning and Scope

Registration of a document means the process through which a document is recorded with the Sub-Registrar or Registrar under the Registration Act 1908 (“Registration Act”) to maintain public records. In other words, registration means the entry of documents in official records in the office authorized by the government. The object of the registration of documents is to give notice to the general public of transactions recorded by those documents and to avoid fraud and forgery.

Time for Presenting Documents for Registration

Section 23 of the Registration Act mandates that registration is to be done within four months of the execution date of a document.

Suppose a document is not presented for registration due to some unavoidable accident or urgent necessity. In these four months of that case, the Registrar may, upon an application on this behalf, extend the document's registration time for a further four months on payment of a fine which may extend up to ten times the amount of the registration fee.

Effect of Non-registration

Section 49 of the Registration Act provides that the failure of a party to register a document that is compulsorily registerable under the Registration Act cannot create or transfer right, ownership or interest in immovable property.

However, the provisions and requirements of the Registration Act only apply to transactions effected through written instruments and documents.  A transaction capable of being rendered orally under the applicable law shall not fail for want of registration of the paper. There is no breach of Section 17 of the Registration Act for oral transactions, and title or interest may be transferred, assigned or limited through such verbal transactions. Common examples of oral transactions include Oral gifts under Islamic Law or an Oral Partition of immovable property.

Documents Requiring Compulsory Registration

The Registration Act provides some instruments and documents required to register compulsorily. The term instrument refers to any formally executed written document creating or recording some legal right, liability or contractual relationship.

In case of non-registration of the documents mandated by the Registration Act to be registered, such documents or instruments will not create any rights or liabilities.

The documents which are mandatorily registerable are provided in Section 17 of the Registration Act. These are:

• Instruments of the gift of immovable property;

• Instruments (other than a will) that create, assign, or limit any right, title, or interest in immovable property valued at PKR 100/- or more;

• Instruments which acknowledge the receipt or payment of any consideration on account of the creation, declaration, assignment, limitation or extinction of any such right, title or interest for the transactions mentioned in (ii) above;

• Instruments which create a lease of immovable property either:

                   (a) from year to year, or

                   (b) for any term exceeding one year, or

                   (c) reserving a yearly rent; and

• Instruments (other than a will) transferring or assigning any decree, award, or order of a court that creates, assigns, or limits any right, title, or interest in immovable property valued at Rs 100/- or more.

Documents Exempt from Registration

Documents required to be registered under Section 17 under (ii) and (iii) above are subject to the following exceptions. The following are the key exceptions provided thereunder:

• Any composition deed whereby an arrangement between debtors and creditors is agreed to settle their debts whereby the debtor conveys his property for the benefit of his creditors, or whereby payment of a composition or dividend on their obligations is secured to the creditors.

• Any instrument relating to shares in a Joint Stock Company, notwithstanding that the assets of such Company consist in whole or in part of immovable property; or

• Any debenture issued by a Joint Stock Company that does not create, declare, assign, limit, or extinguish any right, title, or interest to or in immovable property. However, a debenture that makes a charge on the immovable property of the Company  is not exempted and is compulsorily registerable; or

• Any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such Company; or

• Any document, not itself creating, assigning, or limiting any right, title, or interest in immovable property, but merely making a right to obtain another document which, when executed, shall provide such right, title or interest. An example is an Agreement for the Sale of Immovable Property or Agreement of Mortgage Agreement of Partition. Such documents are not required to register compulsorily;

• Any decree or order of a Court. However, it is noteworthy that not all decrees and demands of the Court are not excluded from compulsory registration, but only those decrees that partake of the character of the documents mentioned in (ii) and (iii) above are excluded from mandatory registration;

• Any grant of immovable property by the Government; or

• Any instrument of partition made by a Revenue Officer; or

• Any endorsement on a mortgage deed acknowledging the payment of the whole or any part of the mortgage money and any other receipt for the amount of money due under a mortgage; or

• Any certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of any property sold by public auction by a Civil or Revenue officer. It is noteworthy that only such certificate of sale is exempted from registration which sale is made through public auction and the certificate is granted by a Civil or Revenue Officer; or

• Any counterpart of a lease is not required to be registered compulsorily if the lease corresponding thereto has been reported.

Documents Registerable Optionally

Section 18 of the Registration Act reads:

18. Documents of which registration is optional

Any document not required under Section 17 may also be registered under this Act.

This Section provides that any documents not required by Section 17 to be registered may be registered under the Registration Act. In other words, all records other than those required to be registered under Section 17 are optionally registerable. The non-registration of such documents does not affect their validity or admissibility in evidence.

Conclusion

Registration of legal instruments and documents is essential as it affects the document's validity. However, the registration of such documents can be a hassle-free experience with Musheer.com’s company registration services. The registration of the document attaches a presumption of authenticity to the document. A non-registered document which is required to be registered cannot be presented in a court of law, as Section 17 provides an exhaustive list of all the necessary documents to be registered.